SUNDAY SESSIONS SEASON FINALEwith a performance by Ragnar Kjartansson featuring The National

Ragnar Kjartansson presents A Lot of Sorrow featuring The National

In celebration of this season’s last Sunday Sessions, MoMA PS1 presents the durational performance, A Lot of Sorrow, by Icelandic artist Ragnar Kjartansson. For the original work Kjartansson sought out US rock band, The National, to perform their song, Sorrow, repeatedly in a six-hour live loop. By stretching a single pop song into a day-long tour de force the artist continues his explorations into the potential of repetitive performance to produce sculptural presence within sound.

Sorrow found me when I was young, Sorrow waited, sorrow won

commences the song by The National, whose music and lyrics repeatedly conjure notions of romantic suffering and contemporary Weltschmerz—themes Kjartansson often uses in his own work employing references as wide-ranging as Ingmar Bergman, the German Romantics, and Elvis Presley. As in all of Kjartansson’s performances, the idea behind A Lot of Sorrow is devoid of irony, yet full of humor and emotion. It is another quest to find the comic in the tragic and vice versa.

Sunday Sessions is made possible by MoMA's Wallis Annenberg Fund for Innovation in Contemporary Art through the Annenberg Foundation.

The VW Dome at MoMA PS1 is made possible by a partnership with Volkswagen of America.

Ragnar Kjartansson. A Lot Of Sorrow (Sketch). 2013. Ink and watercolor on paper.
Courtesy of Luhring Augustine, New York and I8 Gallery, Reykjavík.